


Repli-Fox

by DoomFox



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cussing, Existential Angst, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:49:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27817816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomFox/pseuds/DoomFox
Summary: Fifteen years after the evil Doctor Robotnik began to invade Mobius, the Resistance fights on through the long war against the human's forces under the leadership of such heroes as Commander Olgilvie 'Sonic' Hedgehog and Lieutenant Miles 'Tails' Prower. However, the valiant Resistance may be laid low by the doctor's latest scheme - create an identical copy of a trusted individual to infiltrate, and take down, the Resistance from the inside.Lietutenant Miles Prower was chosen to be that individual.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Miles prowled the interior of his cell, desperately scanning for any way out. There was none - a shimmering energy field penned him in tight, and there were no loose objects he could use to work himself free. Upon that he was panicked, and disoriented. The doctor must have drugged him - he had no idea how he had come to be here, wherever here was, only that he had been awakened by Robotnik himself and dragged into this prison cell by the human's robotic soldiers at the first hint of defiance. 

The fox rubbed at his wrists, unable to help but feel nauseous. Whatever Eggman had put into his system had taken its toll - he did not feel right. His bones felt like they had been taken apart and put back together incorrectly, and something ached in the back of his skull. Miles didn't know what the doctor wanted from him, but it couldn't be good.

However, it seemed like he wouldn't have to wait long to find out - with a hiss of mechanics, the door to the room opened and, flanked by a pair of badniks, the human himself waddled in.

"Well!" Robotnik chuckled, hands clasped behind his back as black eye optics observed the imprisoned fox, "a pleasure to finally see you awake!"

Miles bared his teeth. "What do you want from me, Robotnik?"

The doctor didn't reply immediately, simply approaching his prisoner and regarding Miles with a strange expression over his face. The human chuckled to himself.

"Impressive..." he mused, his artificial eyes looking the fox over with relish, "tell me, Miles... how do you feel?"

"I ain't telling you squat!" Tails snarled, the now adult mobian defiant despite himself, "just wait until the Resistance break me out, Eggman! Just wait until Sonic comes!"

Much to his surprise Robotnik simply beamed, as though the fox's audacity was a personal victory for the human.

"My..." Robotnik sneered, "so sure of yourself!, eh Miles? Well I hate to break you the bad news, but I'm afraid nobody is coming for you. Nobody even knows you are here, under my... _supervision!_ "

Miles swallowed his nerves and glared. "What do you want from me?" he growled, "Information? I'll die before I tell you anything!"

"Actually..." the doctor leered, "you're here precisely for that reason! Though yes, I understand that at this moment you'd rather die before you divulge anything of worth to me." the human inspected one of his gloved hands, flexing the fingers before his prosthetic eyes, "but what if I were to tell you..." he continued, "that I have a way of getting my information... _without_ Resistance cooperation?"

Miles hissed, a spike of nausea running through his head. The doctor laughed at his discomfort, his jowls wobbling as he leaned his head back and chortled.

"You see..." Robotnik went on, "I hatched a devious scheme to gain access to this little rebellion... locate their hidden bases, take out their leaders... all I had to do..." the doctor leaned in close, "was create a copy of a highly trusted resistance fighter, a clone of said individual! Then, after a few 'alterations' to the clone's mind... my very own spy! How about that? _Miles?_ "

Miles stared daggers at the human, the possibilities of a Robotnik sleeper agent disguised as him running through his mind. The damage that could be caused, the people who could die... 

"It won't work..." he replied, his eyes not leaving the doctor's, "you create a clone of me... send it in... somebody will notice! You can't create a perfect copy of a person, _egg-head!"_

The doctor simply flashed him a maliciously evil grin and leaned close, his glowing eyes boring into Miles' own.

"Oh..." the doctor chuckled condescendingly, "oh dear... I'm afraid you don't understand..." the human cackled, sending a chill of uncertainty up Miles' spine, "you see... I was already able to manufacture sufficient genetic material to create the double, without the need to capture anybody... the clone is complete, and ready for insertion once I... 'tweak' it, a little..." the doctor's grin seemed to widen from ear-to-ear, while Miles' stomach dropped and his fur stood on end as he stared into those pitiless, artificial eyes, "what I'm saying, _Miles,_ is it's you. You _are_ the clone."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The doctor chuckled as he settled himself into the command chair of his egg-carrier, the viewscreen displaying the vast expanse of the southern ocean below. His success with the clone had been... less than stellar. The thing was supposed to be compliant, and obedient. Instead, it really did believe itself to be the real Miles Prower - an achievement in itself, though not suited to the doctor's plans.

However. The clone was a successful specimen. If the doctor couldn't brainwash the thing, he could use the experience to create a more compliant clone. Such technology was unprecedented, after all. It had been hard enough ensuring the clone's memories matched the upstart canine's as close as the doctor could possibly manage.

Incidentally, Robotnik appeared to have inadvertently outdone himself again. His clone was _too_ perfect, it seemed. It's utterly uncooperative attitude a perfect match for Prower's own.

"Doctor's log..." he grumbled, opening his recordings with a fat finger, "clone subject eleven biologically a success... mentally, the specimen may be of no use to my infiltration efforts. It believes itself to be the true Miles Prower, and is vocally defying my orders. However... the techniques developed in its creation will be imperative in the creation of another clone, should any attempts at mental alteration prove fruitless..."

The doctor leaned back in his command chair and grinned. "And should my infiltrator program prove a success..." he leered, "my war to take this wretched world will be as good as won..."

_Bloop. Bloop. Bloop._

"What the devil?!" Robotnik jerked in his seat, scrambling around for the source of the disturbance. The ship's red alert sirens had begun wailing, informing the doctor of a threat to the vessel's safety.

"Units!" the doctor bellowed, "what is the meaning of this?!"

"RESISTANCE SHIPS, DOCTOR..." a control badnik flatly responded, "AN UNEXPECTED ATTACK."

"WHAT?! ABSURD!!! SHOW ME!!!"

His robotic crew complied, raising the ship to battle ready status.

"This is an outrage!" Robotnik snarled, pounding the arm of his chair as, onscreen, a wing of smaller, faster resistance ships swooped from the cover of the clouds above, "blast them out of the sky! Give them the cannons!! DESTROY THE-"

 _"Hey, egg-brains!"_ a familiar, cocksure voice crackled over the communications channel, _"Ready for another round?"_

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic grinned as he made his way down the assault bay of the assault craft, doing his best to remain composed despite the harsh rocking of the airframe. Resistance soldiers, all mobian, were stood and ready to race into battle, weapons at the ready as their commander stalked between them.

"We gonna be good, sir?" a young Corporal said, the badger's eyes gleaming eagerly, "we comin' back from 'dis?"

Sonic offered her one of his trademark thumbs-ups. "You know it! Just keep a cool head and kick some ass, and this war'll be over before supper!"

The badger grinned, pointed teeth displaying at the hedgehog's infectious demeanour.

Sonic continued past the line of soldiers, making his way to the cockpit. Of course, internally he wasn't feeling the confidence he portrayed. He had fought the forces of Robotnik countless times, and had seen many of his comrades cut down in the long war. This surprise attack was reckless, and suicidal, but capturing Robotnik here and now was the best chance the resistance would have of ending this destructive conflict.

The hedgehog staggered with another blast from the outside, one gloved hand wrapping around the cockpit doorframe. He adjusted his body armour, the thick plate bulking out his otherwise slender form.

"How we doin', lieutenant?" he grimaced, blinking at the flak exploding around the cockpit windows, "we holdin' up?"

The pilot briefly glanced back to his brother, momentarily displaying blue eyes and orange fur beneath the flight helmet.

"Sure thing Sonic..." the pilot replied, "come back in one piece, okay?"

"You know it, little buddy!" Sonic clapped the fox on the shoulder and Miles Prower smirked. At nineteen years old he was taller now than his adoptive brother... but the affectionate designation had long since stuck. "Good to have you back, Tails..."

"You know it, Sonic..." Lieutenant Miles Prower flipped his instruments and continued the assault shuttle on its flight path, aiming right for the deck of Robotnik's carrier. It was time to end this war.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_"I don't believe you."_

Those had been the first words from Miles' mouth when the doctor had dropped his news. Many of his following weren't so polite in the continuing conversation, the doctor gleefully explaining to his prisoner how he was the most 'successful' of his clone creations thus far, though his intended use as an infiltrator may be in question.

Miles had spat at the doctor, the mucus sliding down the shimmering energy field. There was no way. He _knew_ who he was, and there was no way he was just some... meat-machine, grown in a lab to be used as a weapon.

He was getting out of here. He was getting out of here no matter what... and given the rocking of the deck beneath him, Miles could only assume that might not be too long either.

He grinned. Sonic and the others had come for him, he was sure. He would be out of here in no time.

Still, he worked at the walls, at the floor, at the energy barrier, his brain working to figure a way out by himself. He wasn't going to sit here and do nothing while his friends were being chopped up by SWATBOTS.

He winced. His head still hurt. He racked his brains, eyes scanning around the ceiling. There had to be something. There had to be anything, that he could use. He was a genius, surely he could...

Miles yelped with sudden agony, and double over clutching his head as fresh, sharp pain lanced through his skull. His knees hit the deck, and he curled himself in as he waited for the pain to subside. Eventually, he came around, rubbing his temples as the pain went away.

The fox cursed Robotnik for whatever he'd put in him, and blinked slowly and deliberately as he began to investigate his room again.

The mobian scrambled for solutions... but his ability to think had eroded, his brain working sluggishly, barely able to process the dull _whumps_ that resonated through the surrounding structure.

He didn't know what to do. For the first time in his life... he was utterly helpless.

He cried once again as the deck shuddered, and the internal light flickered with activity. A whine sounded throughout the ship, and he ducked as a harsh snap of electricity and a flash of ozone assaulted his senses. He unfurled from his ball, eyes blinking rapidly... to find the shimmering energy barrier once containing him, utterly gone.

He stared, dumbfounded at his luck, thankful for Robotnik's tendency for terrible design flaws... and then scrambled to his feet and bolted.

Miles was getting out of here. Miles was going home.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic grimaced as he rounded a corner, raising his carbine and plopping harsh bolts of energy into the SWATBOTS that defended the far end of the hall. Beside him, his squadmates offered covering fire, while the hedgehog dashed across the open space to cover behind a bulkhead. He dumped excess heat from his weapon, raising a finger to his helmet's earpiece.

"Second squad!" he barked, straining his voice to be heard over the pulse of blaster rounds, "status?"

 _"Clearing 'da brig now, sir!"_ the heavily accented voice of the female badger Sonic had motivated back on the assault shuttle crackled in reply, _"No sign o' any prisoners! Plenty o' scrapheads, 'doe!"_

"Understood!" Sonic replied, hefting his carbine one handed, "Keep going, Corporal! Who knows what Robotnik's been up to on this flying death lab?"

_"Aye sir! Second squad out!"_

Sonic returned both hands to his weapon and raised his mouth to bellow orders. "Lewis! Rabbiton! Rockets up!"

Two troopers across the deck primed and readied a long bulky cuboid weapon, inserting a self-propelled missile into the fore of the barrel, then swinging around and sending the projectile slashing down the corridor. All troopers ducked as sparks and shrapnel were blasted back down the deck, and the enemy's suppressive fire ceased.

Sonic rounded the corner, the Commander always the first to rush headlong into a fight. He raised one hand and beckoned to his squadmates. "Follow me!"

The hedgehog ducked his head and sprinted along the deck, hopping over the scrapped SWATBOTS, on the way to the bridge. One way or another, they were going to capture the doctor, and end this war for good.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sticks edged around a corner, gripping her weapon tight, ready to blast any bots that entered her sights with gusto. Her squad had scoured the brig - no prisoners of any kind to speak of, and now had moved onto the labs. Her troopers gaped with cautious fascination at tubes filled with glowing green liquids, operating equipment planted around the room, tools and devices she had no chance of understanding.

"What is this, Corporal?" one trooper said nervously, the wolf scanning the strange machines with frightened eyes.

"I dunno, Gadget..." the badger replied, before composing herself. "no gawkin'! We' here ta' do a job! Let's head back to 'da commander's squad and stick a boot up ol' egg-head's a-"

Sticks flinched as energy bolts slashed from above, the lab's internal defences coming online now the troopers had entered the kill-zone. There were screams, blasts of uncoordinated return fire, the smell of burnt meat, and all Sticks could do was fire wildly in reply as aerial units began to descend from the ceiling.

The squad began to scatter, falling to the assault. 

"Corporal! We can't hold 'em off!"

"Fall back! Fall back now!"

"They're comin' outta the walls! They're comin' outta the Chaos-damned walls!"

"No escape! The door's blocked off!"

"We're doomed!"

Then, without warning, there was a streak of orange from above, and the aerial robots began to fly apart into scrap.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sticks raised a fist in the sudden silence, her eyes focusing on the orange figure that hovered in the air on twin tails. She dumbly attempted to work out exactly _what_ Lieutenant Prower was doing on the ship, when he should have been off-station, waiting for the order to retrieve the assault force.

"Sir?" she said uncertainly, as the fox touched down and began to approach her squad, "what... what are you doing here?"

"Robotnik captured me!" Prower replied, "Weird experiments! I'm lucky you guys showed up when you did!" the fox glanced around the lab, taking in the surrounding machines with loathing. "I need you to get me to Commander Hedgehog! I have information critical to the survival of the Resistance!"

Sticks exchanged brief glances of confusion with another trooper, then decided to take the Lieutenant's word for it. There was every chance that, in the fighting, he had been taken prisoner and brought here for some malicious purpose or another.

"Somebody hail the Commander!" she barked back to her squad, her rifle clasped in both hands.

"Unable, corporal! Communications are down! Something about this part of the ship causing signal interference!"

The Lieutenant shrugged, retrieving a carbine from one of the fallen troopers. "Looks like we're heading out on foot!" the fox said.

"Y... yes sir!" she saluted, then turned to regard her squad. "Okay people, be ready ta' transport 'da wounded! We're gettin' off 'dis ship!"

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic and his team emerged onto the bridge under a hail of blaster fire, the resistance troopers swiftly cutting down SWATBOTS and control badniks alike as they darted for cover, Sonic as ever in the lead.

The hedgehog's eyes fixed on a single figure, commanding the enemy defenders from the safety of an egg-shaped flyer.

Sonic jabbed an angry digit toward the human. "Suppressing fire!" he cried, "Don't let him escape!"

The troopers traded heavy fire with defensive badniks while the doctor himself scrambled to get his craft's defensive systems online. Sonic, unwilling to let the doctor escape once again, hopped from his cover and put his enhanced speed into action, making a beeline directly for the mad doctor. Blaster bolts slashed around him, the hedgehog moving too quick for his foes to get a lock. He dispatched a couple of badniks with accurate shots to the 'head', and switched his weapon into automatic mode as he neared Robotnik's craft

The doctor fired, a stream of energy blazing from his flyer. Sonic leaned back into a slide, firing his weapon as he did so. Bolts of energy sparked against the doctor's shields, Sonic rolling back onto his feet and continuing to strafe.

"You ain't getting away this time, doc!" The hedgehog cried as he ducked behind a console and expelled his weapon's heat, "this war ends here!"

"I quite agree, Commander!" the human's voice blared from his craft's speakers, "this assault was foolish! As soon as you are dead I will mop up the rest of your pathetic soldiers, and announce your death to the world!" Robotnik put another stream of energy into the deck as the hedgehog darted for new cover. "The great Commander Sonic the Hedgehog, finally felled in battle by his arch nemesis!!!"

"You're forgetting one thing doc..." Sonic called back, a grenade now in each hand, "you talk too much!" 

Robotnik didn't have time to respond as a rocket streaked into the back of his flyer, eliminating the distracted doctor's energy fields, leaving him now exposed to the elements... and to the hedgehog who leaped from behind cover with the pair of grenades. 

"Hey doc!" Sonic cried, preparing to throw, "Catch th-"

"SONIC!!!"

BOOM.

Robotnik, never one to hang around in a losing fight, snarled and launched a spread of explosives in a circular fashion from his flyer's hull, the munitions slamming into the deck... several right where Sonic would have been, had a flash of orange not tackled him to the ground behind cover.

The Commander, stunned, found himself very briefly looking into a pair of familiar blue eyes... and his stomach dropped as he found his grenades had been knocked from his hands.

"GET DOWN!!!" he in return darted forward and wrapped the other in a hug, slamming the orange-furred individual to the deck and covering him with his armoured body.

The grenades detonated microseconds later, enveloping them both in bright white light.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The mission had been to take the doctor alive. Kill him if absolutely necessary, but take him alive. For that reason, Sonic had elected to utilize stun grenades in his effort to incapacitate Robotnik during their duel. An action that had unwittingly saved the lives of both him... and his brother.

The Commander grunted as he scrambled to his feet, blinking away stars, thankful the stuns hadn't been that close to the pair... and searched around for a particular egg-shaped craft while resistance soldiers busily mopped up the last of the defending robots.

Nothing. Robotnik... had once again escaped.

The hedgehog swore loudly as the orange individual groggily climbed from the deck, coughing and spluttering, and Sonic couldn't help himself as his eyes landed on the fox.

"TAILS?!" he snarled as he approached the Lieutenant, utterly livid, "What the HELL do you think you're DOING?!? I HAD the bastard!!!"

"Me?!" Tails sputtered, dazed blue eyes fixing on Sonic's green, "what the hell were YOU doing?! I just saved your butt from being gibbed!! You seriously didn't see those launchers readying to fire?! He KNEW you had him!!!"

"Tails..." Sonic hissed, forcing himself to calm his wits, "we had him... we HAD HIM!!! Have you ANY idea what you've just done?!? That might be it! That might be our one last shot at capturing that asshole while we had the..." Sonic trailed off, only now noticing his brother was bare-furred... and more importantly, not in his ship where he should have been. "Tails..." the Commander said slowly, "what the hell are you doing here?"

The fox's expression fell into one of bewilderment, as the badger Corporal of second squad approached.

"Commander!" the trooper said breathlessly, her armour scorched where bolts of energy had narrowly missed, "we found 'da Lieutenant in 'da ship's labs! He saved our asses from an ambush, sir!"

"Lieutenant?" Miles replied with a frown, before regarding his older adoptive brother. "Sonic, I... I was captured and..." his face fell as the hedgehog wore an expression of utter bewilderment, "you mean..." the fox said, "you aren't here to rescue me?"

Sonic simply gawped at his brother, before addressing the badger. "Corporal..." he said calmly, "did you attempt to contact me over comms?"

"Yes Commander! But 'da labs were interfering with our transmissions!"

"Sonic?" the fox began to look between the resistance soldiers with increasing suspicion, "what's going on?"

A harsh bang emanated from below decks, the entire ship shuddering... and gravity shifting as it slowly began to lose altitude.

 _"Commander!"_ the unmistakeable sound of Lieutenant Prower's voice crackled through Sonic's helmet communicator, while the hedgehog made direct eye contact with the very much silent fox before him, _"We need to abort! The doctor has escaped and the carrier is going down! Enemy reinforcements are inbound!"_

Sonic and the surrounding troopers stared wide eyed at the mirror image of his brother, who obliviously looked around in bemusement as the resistance soldiers backed away.

"Commander?" the badger said apprehensively, "what is 'dis?"

Sonic gestured to the fox before him, the troopers raising their weapons and holding him at gunpoint.

"Sonic?!" 'Tails' cried, suddenly appearing very confused at the silent command, "what the-"

"Drop your weapon." the Commander ordered, "now."

The fox did as he was told, lowering his scavenged carbine to the ground. Sonic raised his finger to his helmet's comm bud, his eyes never leaving those of his brother's double. "Lieutenant..." he said calmly, "bring the assault boat back for retrieval. And be aware; we have a prisoner."


	2. Chapter 2

Miles glowered through his hands, resting before him on a small grey desk in a silent, steel panelled room. The flight from the scuttled egg-carrier had been a frantic one - the ship itself plummeting to the ocean mere moments after the assault boat had left the deck, and the resistance ships had been hotly pursued by Robotnik's reinforcements. The fast, sleek resistance destroyers the assault force had deployed from had swallowed up the fleeing craft and steamed away into the surrounding cloud cover, seeking escape from the enemy vessels.

It had been close. Too close for Miles to offer much in the way of explanations for his predicament. Not that the resistance troops would let him. The commander, Sonic, had swiftly departed to the cockpit of the aircraft, leaving Miles in the care of a very suspicious and hostile squad of troopers. Upon landing inside the destroyer's hangar bay, they had marched him away at gunpoint, though the decks of the destroyer and ultimately into this chamber, where he had been waiting for a while, wondering just what in the hell was going on.

He tried to ignore the little, menacing voice in the back of his head that echoed. _"You see Miles, it's you. You ARE the clone."_

He flexed his hands before him, still feeling the unfamiliar _wrongness_ in the bones. His head still pounded. He shook off the paranoid thinking. There was no way. He knew who he was. He _knew._

His ears perked and his eyes flickered up as the secure door hissed open, catchcing his attention and thankfully snapping him from his thoughts. A pair of familiar figures, both clad in the muted grey fatigues of the Mobian Resistance. Commander Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog, 'Sonic' as he was commonly know, and Commander 'Knuckles', whose true echidnian name was unrevealed even to Miles. The pair, old friends in the long war, entered the chamber with a pair of armed troopers, wearing equally stony expressions as they regarded the fox seated before them.

Miles's eyes flicked between theirs, hoping for some sign of reassurance. There was none.

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged a brief glance, the hedgehog offering the echidna a small nod before Knuckles' purple eyes fixed solidly on Miles'.

"First things first," the echidna grumbled, "what are you?"

Miles' mouth flapped open, his entire body tensing. 

"It's... it's _me_ , Knux?" the fox said, his bewilderment stealing his breath and making his voice light, "what do you mean?"

The echidna huffed, folding his bare arms. "Don't play games. I'll ask again; what _are_ you?"

Miles shook his head, fixing his eyes pleadingly on his adoptive brother. "Sonic? What's going on?"

Sonic, released a long sigh through his nose, his disposition slightly more sympathetic than his echidna comrade. The hedgehog took a step closer and bowed his head, before locking his emerald green eyes with Miles'. He took a few moments, seemingly boring into the fox's soul, before offering his own inquiry.

"Let's try this again..." he said lightly, " _who_ are you? Can you tell us that?"

Miles did his best to ignore that niggling, evil little voice in the back of his head as he swallowed his nerves. "Sonic... I'm your brother... don't you _know_ me?"

Sonic's continued to make eye contact for a few moments more, before sighing and offering a small shake of the head as he stepped back from the table. "That's funny..." he moved back toward the door. "That's real funny... lieutenant?" with a clank, the door opened and the security troops kept their weapons ready as the hedgehog called outside, "you can come in now..."

The fox looked between his captors, confused... and his reality began to crumble around him as an identical twin-tailed fox entered the room, portable computer in hand.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, tell me..." Sonic gestured toward the other fox, "who's this then?"

Miles shook his head, eyes bulging as they fixed on his identical double. His head felt as though it would explode, and he could take it no more.

"NO!" Miles tumbled backwards from his chair, slamming into the floor and scrambling backwards to the wall. He slammed his back into the cold steel, jabbing an accusatory finger to the double "NO!"

The troopers held their weapons, tensing as Sonic raised a hand to steady them. "What do you mean, no?" he said calmly, green eyes refusing to leave the fox's blue, "he's right here. You can see him."

Miles shook his head and glared daggers at the copy. "It's... it's not me!" he hissed, "that's an imposter, Sonic! _A clone!_! Robotnik captured me, and created a clone to fool you all! That's his plan! That's his whole plan!"

"That right, huh?" Sonic replied, voice cool as ever, "and when did that happen? Can you tell us when you were captured? Do you remember?"

Miles racked his brains, trying to comply, and found he had no memory of being captured by Robotnik forces. Only one moment going about his duties... and the next waking up in the doctor's lab, demanding to know where he was.

He shook his head frantically. "No..." he hissed, his head beginning to pound as he processed the vague memories from before. "No..."

Sonic nodded as though in understanding. "Okay..." he said, "what _do_ you remember?"

"I..." Miles again tried to think, but his mind fuzzed over. He fought hard to concentrate, yet the only clear memories he had were from the last few hours. 

He glanced fearfully to the other fox, who pointedly stared at his data pad.

"I..." Miles failed to provide a satisfactory answer, and instead stared pleadingly into Sonic's eyes. "Sonic... you know me... you _KNOW_ me, Sonic!! You KNOW your brother!!!"

Sonic offered the now panic-stricken fox a final sympathetic look, before he shook his head. "Yeah... I know my brother... and I'm sorry buddy, but whatever you are... you're not him."

The fox's final spark of hope died, and he stared blankly at his captors before lowering his face into one hand, and his world fell apart.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Clones huh?" Knuckles grumbled, arms folded as he focused on a security monitor, "shit. Egg-head's had a new idea? That's something."

"Infiltrators..." Sonic muttered, looking to the same security monitor as the colonel, "anyone of us could be an imposter... that's definitely a game changer."

On the screen, the clone in question still hadn't moved from his position on the floor, back to the wall, staring through the floor. The thing had just shut down, either unwilling or incapable of answering any more questions, and so the three friends had retired to Security, keeping an eye on their prisoner.

"Question is..." Sonic continued, "what do we do with this one?"

Knuckles snorted. "I say we put it out of its misery," he replied, "shot to the back of the head. Chuck the body overboard."

"Seriously, Knux?" Sonic said, folding his arms over his chest, "that how the Resistance treats prisoners now?"

Knuckles locked his eyes with Sonic's, face like carved stone. "It's a _weapon,_ Sonic." he said pointedly, "a _Robotnik. Creation._ It's not a real person!"

"I dunno, Knux..." Sonic hummed, his eyes flicking back to the security monitor, "he seems pretty real to me... and pretty distressed, too."

Knuckles wave a thickly gloved hand dismissively. "I think it's all bullshit. The thing's been discovered and now it needs to appeal to our sympathy. But I ain't buying it!"

"Yeah well, as of right now he's _my_ prisoner and I won't have him just executed," Sonic retorted darkly, the two longtime friends glaring into one anothers' eyes.

"Tails..." Knuckles grumbled, purple eyes flicking to the silent fox's, "your opinion. What do we do with it?"

Tails ears perked and his head snapped up, having seemingly been deep in thought while his friends had their back and forth. He shuffled in position, leaning against the bulkhead with his data pad held in hand. The fox's tails swished and he liked his lips as he formulated his reply.

"I'd like to run some tests..." the lieutenant replied, "if Robotnik has the ability to create copies of us, we need to know what we're looking for. And the best way I can do this..." the fox hesitated, thoughts running through his head, "is with a live specimen. I can run the examinations I need and it may have information we can use."

"There you have it, Knux..." Sonic said with a smirk, "that a good enough reason for you to not go blowing prisoners' brains over the deck?"

Knuckles grunted, before glowering at Tails. "Just make sure," he said cantankerously, "you get some useful information from that thing. If it hurts a single one of my crew..." the echidna let that statement hang in the air for a moment, "do you understand?"

Tails nodded, though not without a gulp of nerves. "Yes, Commander."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Lift your arm, please."

The fox did as he was told, mutely complying with his examiner's instructions as a scanning device was placed beneath his arm. He stared blankly ahead, doing his best not to meet the sky blue eyes of the fox who had been prodding and poking at him for what felt like hours.

Miles Prower. _Lieutenant_ Miles Prower. 

Not Cadet Miles Prower, who the fox remembered being.

_Though I guess those aren't my memories... are they?_

The fox didn't know what it was that had screwed his false memories. Maybe it was because he was a poor, incomplete copy, or maybe Robotnik simply wasn't aware of Prower's promotion when manufacturing his experiment's memories, but the fox had known himself to be a Technical Cadet, tasked with engineering as well as piloting. That, it appeared, was incorrect information. 

As it stood, the _real_ Tails was busily examining his 'patient' in the security of the secure sickbay, presently accompanied by a short, seventeen year-old rabbit girl who the fox recognised far too much. Medical Cadet Cream, who awkwardly stood by the lieutenant's side, handing him the necessary equipment to perform his work, recording information as and when she was instructed.

The fox tried to ignore her too. She didn't know him. Even though he remembered her as a friend... they'd never met.

He'd only been born this morning, after all.

"Look at me, please..."

He hesitated, unwilling to look into _that_ face.

There was a pause. "Look at me, please." the voice... _his_ voice repeated more forcefully.

Miles... _the clone_ did has he was instructed, raising his head and looking forward, his eyes locking with a pair of utterly identical blue irises, that appeared to regard him without pity. The lieutenant reached out and took the clone's chin in one hand, his other raising a small light to shine into the eyes of his patient.

Prower instructed the clone to look in different direction, and once again the clone complied. There was no use resisting after all.

The lieutenant finished taking his examinations and consulted his data pad, clicking his tongue as he glanced back to his doppelganger.

"heh... uncanny," Miles said lightly, smirking with what appeared to be amusement, "externally at least, you're a dead rigner for me... internally, you're all artificially grown material... impressive tech. Wish I knew how Robotnik programmed your memories..."

The clone drooped his ears beneath the lieutenant's scrutiny, feeling vastly inferior under those cold blue eyes. "What are you going to do with me?" he said quietly, looking pleadingly into the real fox's face.

Tails shrugged. "I don't know..." he replied casually, as though it were of no concern to him, "that all depends upon when we reach HQ. Then the... General will decide, I guess. Until then, I've managed to pursuade Commander Knuckles you're more use to us alive than dead at this time."

The clone cocked his head and offered the lieutenant a surprised expression. "You... spoke up for me?"

Tails, who had been idly tapping at his data pad, paused mid-click and lowered the device. The fox leaned forward and glared right into the identical blue eyes of his double. The clone shrank back beneath the scrutiny, utterly cowed in his emotionally compromised state.

"Now listen here," Tails said evenly, "If you think I kept you alive out of the goodness of my heart, think again. To be frank, your very existence bothers the living hell outta me. I don't know how Robotnik made you, or how he gave you my memories and identity, and if I'm absolutely honest I might be able to learn more about how you work if I just cut you open right now and started rooting around in there... so don't allow yourself the impression that I spared you from sympathy or 'kinship' or anything. Understand?"

The clone stared back into his mirror, understanding that _this_ Miles Prower, was definitely not the one he remembered being. He drooped his ears and lowered his head. "So why's you keep me alive?"

Miles leaned in closer, eyes boring straight through the clone's very being. "Because," he said quietly, "it could just as easily have been me in that chair, and you with this datapad... and I wouldn't want to die either."

The clone's ears flattened against this head and he sadly looked away... briefly locking eyes with Cadet Cream. The rabbit girl blushed beneath her fur, and snapped her eyes back to her datapad as she continued recording the examination.

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Medical Cadet Cream followed Lieutenant Prower from the sickbay, clutching her datapad to her chest. She kept her head bowed as she trotted after the fox, cowed by Miles' sour mood.

"Tails?" she spoke up, hopping into step to walk beside him, "don't you think you were a little... hard on him?"

The lieutenant stopped dead still and glared to the rabbit. The girl stopped in her tracks and ducked her head, ears drooping behind her and big brown eyes blinking back at him.

"Hard?" he said coldly, "hard? You're damn right was hard on him, Cream! I have to stand there and look into my own eyes, knowing he was created to be used against us!" The lieutenant released a shaky breath, running his hand through his ruffled head fur. "And you know what, Cream? he seemed completely convinced he was me... what if..." the fox looked into the rabbit's eyes, and Cream saw the sudden fear glistening in the bright blue orbs, "what if it was _me_ who was the copy, and he's the real me? And Robotnik's screwing with us? Jeez, I could go crazy thinking about that..."

Cream sighed nd reached out to comfort her friend, but Tails recoiled from her touch. "Tails..."

The fox offered her a glare, before clearing his throat and straightening his posture. "I don't need your sympathy, cadet..." he said evenly, shrugging off his nerves in favour of professional conduct, "just keep an eye on that damn clone."

Cream's words caught in her throat, and she could only nod to the steely-eyed fox. "Yes... Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant turned and strode away, his whipping tails betraying his inner turmoil. The rabbit clutched her datapad, then turned and made to continue her duties.


End file.
